Leaked U.N. climate report sees 'very high risk' the planet will warm beyond key limit

Chicago Tribune ^ | February 14, 2018 | by Chris Mooney

[Oldeconomybuyer]

A draft United Nations climate science report contains dire news about the warming of the planet, suggesting it will likely cross the key marker of 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, of temperature rise in the 2040s, and that this will be exceedingly difficult to avoid.

Temperatures could subsequently cool down if carbon dioxide is somehow removed from the air later in the century, the document notes. But that prospect is questionable at the massive scales that would be required, it observes.

The 31-page draft, a summary of a much-anticipated report on the 1.5 degrees Celsius target expected to be finalized in October, was published by the website ClimateHome on Tuesday.

The draft document states that there is a "very high risk" of the planet warming more than 1.5 degrees above the temperature seen in the mid- to late 19th century. Maintaining the planet's temperature entirely below that level throughout the present century, without even briefly exceeding it, is likely to be "already out of reach," it finds.

What's most striking is the radical nature and rapidity of the changes that would be required to somehow preserve a world below 1.5 degrees.

The document finds that the world has only 12 to 16 years worth of greenhouse gas emissions left, from the start of 2016, if it wants a better than even chance of holding warming below 1.5 degrees.

Two of those years have already elapsed, as of this writing. A third will have nearly elapsed by the time the draft report is finalized and released in October.

[Rocky]

Oh, no. Who leaked this? We were trying to keep it a secret.

[Joe Miner]

LOL, I live in the Arizona desert, btdt :)